Nightmares Never Leave
by Zodiac Dragon
Summary: Random thing I wrote; Dean is waking up with his girlfriend. No smut, but some adult concepts. One-shot, roughly a thousand words. Romance, annoyed!Sam, caring!Dean and original!Max (my female OC). Dean/OC, clearly. No language; rated T just in case.


**Author Note** - this takes place in one of the first seasons; Max, my original female character is dating Dean. More so hooking up whenever they could, and then going there separate ways again; this takes place when Sam and Dean stopped in the same town as her. The hunt is over and they are leaving in the morning. Sorry for the typos/it making little to no sense, I wrote this at 3:00am last night when I couldn't sleep. So, yeah...

* * *

It wasn't until that day that Dean had realized who skinny Max was. Laying there in that bed with her next to him, arms crossed softly around her chest, her shirt had come up. He could sit there and count every one of her ribs, if he wanted too. But for a while he just looked at her. Her scars, her hair, her slow breathing. Sam was sleeping in the other hotel room after Dean had found Max outside when he had not been able to sleep himself. Of course, they ended up crawling into bed together. Not having sex or anything, just sleeping together.

Max's feet rubbed together and her eyes twitched as if she was having a bad dream. Of course she was having a bad dream. Nightmares were a daily routine, but that did not mean that they were fearless. Dean rolled over, off of his back and onto his side, pulling the blankets up when Max shivered, then draping his arm across her stomach. For a while, he just sat there. Felt and listened to her steady breathing and closed and opened his eyes routinely to make sure she wasn't awake. She seemed jumpy, but then again, she always did. He supposed that it was part of being her, and it wouldn't change in her sleep.

Somehow, he started to wonder if Max ever had these moments when he wasn't awake. She was an insomniac, so it had to happen some time. Then again, she was also ADHD, so she probably wasn't sitting there doing nothing when she couldn't sleep. As he thought about it, he realized just how much was wrong with the girlfriend he was so devoted too. She was dyslexic, bad with people, ADHD, headstrong and insomniac... He could also think of a billion other good things, too. Her hair, her laugh, her ability to laugh a herself, and so much more. There were also those rare moments when you got her in just the right time, and she got a smile on her face. One that could break down the world, if it was used correctly. She was much more powerful than she knew.

Dean's eyes found the scar on her stomach, peeking out from behind his arm. She had more scars then he did, which was saying something; Max usually said that she just screwed up more often, but Dean knew about her past. A dad that shoved her into anything and everything with no training... It would make you screw up. He often found it hard to feel bad for her, though; partly because she didn't want him to feel bad for her, partly because he had grown up with nightmares shoved in his face.

Suddenly, Max rolled over and buried her face in him chest, making him tighten his grip around her.

"Morning, Sunshine." He said with a grin already starting to form.

"I'm not awake yet." Of course Max would say that. But Dean knew how hard it was for her to stay still, so he knew it wouldn't be long. And it wasn't. A mere ten seconds later, she had rolled onto her back again, looking at his face, which was several inches from his. "What time is it?" She asked groggily, sitting up. Dean sat up too. "I think it's only around nine," he said. She leaned against him. "You get any sleep?" She asked, pulling away to lean on the bed frame. She never had been a morning person. "Some. You?" Dean really looked at Max. She had purple bags forming under her eyes. "No..." Max tried to rub the sleep from her eyes.

"Well you know what that calls for!" Dean turned on the radio by the bed and kissed her long and hard. This time, Max laughed and Dean put his arms around her waist and pulled her to the edge of the bed. She took his hands as they got up and danced to the music. It wasn't very good, but it was the perfect thing to get a sleepy Max up.

After the song was over, Max spun across the room and opened one of the drawers and started to pull out jeans and a t-shirt. "Hope you don't mind," she chuckled at Dean, then pulled off her shirt and picked up the clean one up. Dean was by the bed, placing a shirt over his shoulders and looking at her. "By all means, don't let me stop you." He said. She placed the clean one over her shoulders, then slipped on a pair of jeans. Dean was buttoning the last button on his shirt when Max got finished, pulling out socks and her combat boots. She sat next to Dean and handed him his. "Hey... Do you wanna get breakfast... Like, without Sam? I mean, we have to leave today and..." Max asked.

Dean rubbed his head, lacing up his shoes. "Yeah. I'm sure Sammy won't mind." They sat in semi-silence for a few minutes, listening to the sound of the radio and enjoying each others presence for a moment before Max burst. "Hey, can I ask you something?" Dean grinned, looking towards her, then pulling her off the bed. Max pressed their foreheads together. "You've been hunting all your life... Right?" She bit her lip, breaking apart their foreheads to look down. Dean nodded. "Yeah,"'he said, slightly worried.

"Well, you know I've been having nightmares..." Max hated to admit it, Dean knew, but he must have been easier to open up too. "Do they ever go away...?" She sounded so small, so innocent. Like a child asking if the scary part in the movie was over. Dean knew better then to believe that that's what she was, of course... She was a fighter. He sighed, though, looking not her eyes. "Yeah. Totally. You'll be over them in a matter of days." Max looked at him, then broke from his arms and his gaze. "You're lying, I can tell."

There it was. The disadvantage to dating a hunter. "Fine. No, they don't." For some reason, Max relaxed. "Perfect. Anyway... breakfast?" Dean wasn't totally untactful, so he nodded. "Let's go tell Sam."

Max looked at his feet. "I'll tell him. Go tie your shoe." She said, then promptly walked out the door.

Max opened the door to Sam's room without knocking, resulting in seeing a tall shirtless Sam fall sideways onto the bed in suprise.

"D*mmit, Max!" He exclaimed, getting up and going to put his shirt on. "Dean's with you, right?"

Max nodded. "We're going to breakfast."

Sam nodded. "I'll meet you in your hotel room in a second, just gotta get a few things." He turned around and stopped dead at the look on Max's face. "So I can't come?" He said, slightly sad. Max sighed. "Dean and I wanted to go alone since we're leaving today." Sam's eyes turned a bit sadder then they had been. Max just stared at him for a moment before giving in. "FINE. You can come, but you are gonna have to put up with us flirting."

Sam now turned confused. "What? No, just go ahead." He said. Max looked at him for a second longer. "You sure?" She asked. Sam nodded. "Yeah, totally." Max then turned, saying nothing but shutting the door behind her quietly. She entered the hotel room that Dean was in to find him rummaging through her bag. She raised her eyebrows at the unsuspecting Dean, then leaned against the open doorframe and coughed quite loudly.

Dean looked up, startled and he pulled the thing that was in his hand out: a handful of tampons. He then looked at his hand and dropped all of them while Max cracked up. "On your period, little Deanna?" She laughed, walking over and taking her bag from him. He blushed slightly. "No. I was looking to make sure you had cash." Max laughed. "Steal a girls tampons and then make her pay? Classy." She said, slinging the bag over her shoulder.

Dean shook his head. "Yeah, yeah," he then lead her out the door, the happy couple laughing and joking all the way, while Sam sat in his hotel room and tried to decide what to do about breakfast.


End file.
